The press release reads; “The Night After Time is a collection of re-recorded songs from the band’s first album ‘The Desert at Night’, which was originally recorded in 2002 when Camel of Doom front man Kris Clayton was just 14 years old. Now older, wiser and poles apart in musical and technical ability, Kris decided to revisit these tracks to help them reach their full potential. The tracks were laid down in November and December of 2009, but were shelved when work on the next full length album began in earnest. After a busy period which saw work on both EP and album grind to a halt, Kris took the tracks to Priory Recording Studios and completed the work with much assistance from his close friend and former colleague, Greg Chandler of Esoteric. This release aims to simultaneously look back and forward, gazing fondly at the bands routes whilst preparing the unsuspecting public for the new material that lurks in wait… Watch this space!”

Now that the press-release has explained the reasoning behind the re-recording of these songs, it is on with the review. ‘The Desert At Night’ album was a very underrated album at its time of release and still is very under-appreciated. The album was long and meandering in parts and the production on the album wasn’t the greatest with the amount of over-processed hiss that is on the recording. Perhaps that is one of the reasons for the re-recording of these 4 songs. What is great however and a little freaky is the four songs chosen are not only some of the best tracks from that album but four personal favorites of yours truly.

Camel Of Doom’s brand of doom is in the psychedelic vein and extremely jammy, it many respects it is closer to King Crimson than it is Saint Vitus as it has a strange jazzy ambience to it and the feel of the songs is very hypnotic.

Despite the flaws in the production of ‘The Desert At Night’ I personally feel that the songs had a character all of their own so re-recording them is a surprising move on behalf of Kris Clayton but I was glad to hear, the songs have been given some much-needed tweaks all in the right places but the songs themselves still carry the original vibe of the songs, much to my relief. ‘Death On The Ship Of The Desert’ was one of the tracks on the original recording that stood out and it again stands out on this EP. The hypnotic nature of the track is still there and it sounds even more mesmerizing this time around. ‘Child of the Scream’ which opens this EP is a wonderful dose sludge and doom monolithic instrumental workout and ‘The Power’ is still like being stranded in a psychedelic desert high on LSD and much of the music has that vibe about it.

The pick of the litter though goes to ‘Run Camel Run’ which is a strangely twisted blast of doomy psychedelia that sounds even better with this reworking. It might seem odd to re-record songs that are so old but when you hear the strength of these tunes and the new treatment that they are given, it all becomes all too clear – it was totally worth it. Camel Of Doom are and always have been a ‘a jew in the rough’ of the underground doom scene. A band that remains in obscurity purely because of circumstance and not because of the actual music. The songs and playing is right up there with the likes of Sleep and other legends of stoner-doom but it has never been given the credit it deserves. Hopefully this EP and the upcoming album will be the turning-point, it is long overdue………9/10